By Francisca Oluyole
Abuja – Prof. Park Idisi, a Development and Agricultural Economist, University of Abuja says intense rainfall and floods can affect farm produce.
Idisi made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja.
According to him, intense rainfall can affect the growth of farm produce such as rice, millet, sorghum, beans and guinea corn as they do not require much rain that Nigeria is currently experiencing.
He said that the current rainfall being experienced in Nigeria, especially in this October could be seen as the effect of climate change, adding that the rains had continued to intensify instead of abating.
“We can see the way the climate is changing, heavy rainfall everyday and the vegetation is changing, we are also experiencing flood, farmlands are being submerged all of these will affect the grains.
“The nation needs to prepare to address effect of climate change for us to have food security, if rains continue to end of October, beans will not germinate well because it requires little water to grow,’’ he said.
According to Idisi, Nigeria is not food sufficient due to lack of warehouse for food storage, adding that the current high cost of food prices is due to lack of food reserve.
“Nigeria is producing less food every year couple with the Fulani, herders and farmers clashes that also contributed to lack of food sufficiency.
“The closure of borders has contributed to the current high increase of food items which show that Nigeria is not food secure.
“If famine should occur now in Nigeria and linger to the next three years, our country will be in danger because we don’t have storage for yams, maize and among others.’’
He urged the Federal Government to adopt massive food production, develop storage facility for grains and food processing facility for all year round, adding that these would enable Nigeria to be food sufficient.
(NAN)